Every day you see ads saying "build your e-shop for free in 10 minutes". And it is true that you start for free. The question is what you pay afterwards, and how much time it costs you before it starts selling.
What "free" means on e-shop platforms
Platforms such as Shopify or Wix usually offer a trial period or a free plan with limitations. To sell properly, with your own domain and payments, you need a paid plan. WooCommerce is free software, but it needs your own hosting.
The costs you don't see at first
- The platform's monthly subscription, which goes up as you need more features.
- Apps and add-ons: a Skroutz feed (Skroutz is Greece's leading price-comparison site), Greek couriers, myDATA (the Greek tax authority's e-invoicing platform), Greek-format invoices. On foreign platforms these are usually separate subscriptions.
- Per-sale fees on some plans, on top of the bank's fees.
- The theme (template): the good ones are paid.
- Your time: settings, translations, taxes, shipping, legal texts. For most professionals, dozens of hours.
Add it all up over 2-3 years and a "free" e-shop often costs more than one you build once on your own hosting.
The problem with the Greek market
The big international platforms are excellent, but they are not built for Greece. The things a Greek e-shop needs, namely cash on delivery, ACS/ELTA/BoxNow (local couriers), Skroutz, myDATA, instalment payments and Greek banks, require add-ons or don't exist at all. WooCommerce has all of them, because the vast majority of Greek e-shops use it.
Renting or owning?
On a subscription platform the store "lives" inside it. If you stop paying, it closes. If the platform raises prices, you simply pay. An e-shop on WooCommerce is yours: you can take it to any server or developer. More on this in the article renting a website or buying one.
When it is worth building it yourself
- You want to test an idea with a few products before investing.
- You have the time and you enjoy technology.
- You sell mainly abroad, where the international platforms are more complete.
When it pays to outsource it
- You want to sell in Greece with cash on delivery, couriers and Skroutz from day one.
- You have more than a few dozen products, or products from a supplier's XML feed.
- Your time is worth more in your business than in settings.
The middle ground
With AI tools, the cost of building has dropped a lot. An e-shop on WooCommerce with 50 products, card payments, couriers and a Skroutz feed now costs from €700 + VAT, once, with the domain and hosting free for the first year. After that you only pay for hosting, with no fees on your sales. See what you need to open an e-shop or estimate the cost with the calculator.
